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Inside a Montreal bakery, fresh lahmajoune come out of the oven every day, while customers gather in a welcoming, family-run setting.
But that atmosphere was briefly overshadowed by confusion and stress when Charbel Hannan and his family received a letter from Quebec’s language watchdog informing them that it had received a complaint about the bakery’s online posts.
“Most publications (photos, captions, spoken language in short videos) are not available in French,” reads the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF)’s letter following an inspection of Lahmajoune Villeray’s social media. The watchdog said English is used more than French on the family business’s TikTok account.
Upon receiving the letter, Hannan said he and his family were “kind of scared and stressed,” though he insists that most of his family business’s content, including on TikTok, has always been in French and English.
Still, Hannan said his family did not know about the language laws regarding social media posts.
“We’re not really experts, honestly. We’re just a family business. We’re a small business,” he said.
“It’s unfortunate because there are so many huge businesses that are actually doing this wrong thing that they’re claiming.”
For him, the goal of the bakery’s social media posts is to share the story, the passion and work of his family, adding his father has been in the sector for 40 years.
“Our goal is really not to split between both languages or to value a language more than the other,” argued Hannan.
What does the law say?
The letter Hannan received pointed to Section 52 of Quebec’s Charter of the French Language, which states that “regardless of the medium, catalogues, brochures, leaflets, commercial directories, order forms and any other similar documents that are available to the public must be written in French.”
“It is contrary to the law to make available to the public, on a website or social media, a commercial publication that is in a language other than French when its French version is not accessible under at least equivalent conditions,” read the OQLF’s letter.
In a statement to CBC, OQLF spokesperson François Laberge said a company may have two versions of the same social media account.
“In this case, the company must ensure that any content published for the Quebec market in the English version of its account is published simultaneously in French in the French version of the account,” wrote Laberge.
In addition, Laberge said when a failure to comply with language rules is brought to the watchdog’s attention, the OQLF contacts the business to inform it of the Charter’s requirements and assists it in finding solutions so that its customers can access information in French.
Lahmajoune Villeray was surprised to receive a complaint from Quebec’s language watchdog, the OQLF. In a letter, the bakery was told it is against the Charter of the French Language to make commercial content online in a language other than French, when a French version isn’t also accessible. And social media posts count as commercial content.
The Hannan family shared the OQLF’s letter on social media, hoping to get more feedback on the message. Hannan said he and his loved ones were happy to see people’s support under the post, which generated numerous comments online.
In its letter, the office asked the family to rectify the situation as soon as possible.
Hannan said the bakery’s social media posts will include more words in French than English, including on TikTok, though he said that’s already the case on Instagram.
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